Hi guys,

The author of the book behind the 5:2 diet has just released another book called 'TheFast800' which is based upon the latest research and shows that 'crash dieting' isn't a bad if it is under guidance and if someone needs to lose weight. It also shows that a majority of people kept the weight off because they were a) motivated by their quick weight loss and b) they managed to switch to a healthier lifestyle.

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Coming from a family that has diabetes, and my weight keeps creeping up, I am going to try to do this for a month, and then transition to 5:2 and eventually transition to a healthy, low-carb lifestyle. I will document my progress on this forum. The bad, the good, the frustration obv. My goal is to be in a healthy BMI range. I am currently ticking 'obese'.

The most difficult part for me will be correctly assessing what I am eating and planning in advance. I always think that I eat less and exercise more, and will use this month to gain more insight into learning what I am actually eating and how much I am moving.

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Current weight: 14 stone/ 89 kilo
Height: 5.7 / 173 cm
Age: 27
Goal: lose 10-20% of my bodyweight

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Plan for the next week (Vegan)

Sunday:
Breakfast: Kale and kiwi smoothie with almond milk = 200
Lunch: Vegan tofu tikka masala with brown rice = 400
Dinner: Mung bean soup = 200
1,5 -2 litre water

Monday:
Breakfast: Porridge with coconut milk, a mandarin, seeds and bee pollen = 200
Lunch: Mung bean soup = 200
Dinner: Grilled seitan with roasted fennel and carrots = 400
1,5 -2 litre water

Tuesday:
Breakfast: Porridge with coconut milk, a Mandarin, seeds and bee pollen = 200
Lunch: Mung bean soup = 200
Dinner: Grilled seitan with roasted fennel and carrots = 400
1,5 -2 litre water

Wednesday
Breakfast: Porridge with coconut milk, a mandarin, seeds and bee pollen = 200
Lunch: Mung bean soup = 200
Dinner: Sweet jacket potato with vegan cheese, pomegranate and toasted walnuts = 400
1,5 -2 litre water

Thursday
Breakfast: Plain porridge with coconut milk, apple, cinnamon and raisins: 200
Lunch: Smoked cauliflower soup= 150
Dinner: Spaghetti Bolognese with Quorn = 450
1,5- 2 litre water

Friday
Breakfast: Plain porridge with coconut milk, apple, cinnamon and raisins: 200
Lunch: Smoked cauliflower soup: 150
Dinner: Spaghetti Bolognese with Quorn: 450
1,5 -2 litre water

Saturday
Brunch: Sweet potato Shakshuka + 1/2 avocado with hummus = 400
Dinner: Pumpkin Mac and cheese: 400
1,5 -2 liter water

Sunday
Brunch: Sweet potato Shakshuka + 1/2 avocado with hummus: 400
Dinner: Pumpkin Mac and Cheese: 400
1,5 - 2 litre water

Hi Lamb; your food looks next level awesome! Congratulations on starting afresh and I'm glad you found an eating plan that makes sense for you. I liked looking at your menu to see a Vegan diet. And you're so right, planning is 85% of the battle. I use a low-carb eating plan (which is incidentally known to be incredibly good for diabetes - see Dr. Jason Fung Diet Doctor for info on that).

While it is nice to have a lot of weight loss at the beginning ... be prepared for a bit of a stall afterward or, at the very least, be prepared to go back to losing 1-2 pounds per week. I just went through the initial whoosh and am now making friends (?) with the fact my weight loss has slowed down.

I wish you success and hope you find some threads on this site that are supportive. Come join us over at the 5 pound challenge thread if you like.

Hi Follena,

Thanks so much for your kind reply! The recipes come from this awesome website called: veganricha.com It tells you also exactly what is in each of her own recipes. I also found that a vegan diet helps with increasing my overall veg intake which was disastrous before lol, and while not 100% vegan, I liked to think of ways to be a bit creative with my food.

Also, I will definitely check out the Dr Jason Fung Diet Doctor. I haven't heard of it before. I think and know that I will find the coming month challenging to very challenging so I love the idea of joining the other threads too.

I wish you so much luck in your journey as well and keep each other updated

Day 2:

Breakfast: Porridge with coconut milk and seeds= 218
Lunch: Grilled seitan with roasted pumpkin and carrots +hummus = 524
Dinner: Pumpkin soup: 105
= 847
Exercise: 20 min weight lifting at gym + 15 fast walking
6 glasses of water + 3 glasses of tea.

Overall mood: I am feeling a little bit oef in my head at times but haven't felt really hungry or thinking about food that much today. I am noticing that my stomach is making lots of noises so I AM PRAYING that I won't be windy... I was also v tempting to get myself a nice big latte today but didn't do in the end, and it is only day two!

Changes to food: pumpkin soup because local supermarket didn't have mungbeans neither fennel and added hummus to my lunch to increase my intake because I am doing light exercises at the gym.

Note to readers: I am def not planning on visiting the gym more than twice but I have an office job whereby I don't really move a lot so the gym exercises is mainly to support my back which is weak.

Day 3:

Breakfast: Porridge with almond milks and seeds (added more seeds): 286
Lunch: Pumpkin soup with two slices of bread and hummus = 409
Snack: Apple with 1tbsp almond butter= 165
Exercise: Long walk = 160
6 glasses of water + 1 black coffee

Overall mood: I haven't felt hungry all day but was tempted a lot by birthday cake and slices of pizza that were shared in the office. I felt really proud of myself for being able to say no, 5 times but still I find saying no and being, I think, anti-social the hardest about watching what I eat.

Changes to food: Skipped dinner and upped my lunch.

Exercise: I felt muscle ache so stuck with taking a long walk. However, today was the first day that I noticed, how inclined I am to take the lift at work so will try to be mindful of that and take the stairs instead.

Oh thanks, I'm definitely going to check out the website. When I retire in a couple years, I see myself going more and more to the vegetarian side by using other sources of protein. I really want to learn to cook tasty meals with beans.
So thanks for sharing the link and rock on with your healthy eating plan

Day 4

Breakfast: Eggwhite omelet from Pret + mandarin: 207
Lunch: Blackbean stew with rice and side of chicken from Leon = 500
Snack: Cracker + 1 tsp almond butter (before bed)= 90
Total: 797
Exercise: Long walk = 220
7 glasses of water + 1 black coffee

Overall mood: I hadn't slept the night and felt awful because of it all day. I do think this is because of the diet. I felt much better after my protein rich lunch and didn't feel hungry in the evening but still, fingers crossed, I will sleep more soundly tonight. Also it is ****ing cold in the UK.

Reflection: I did noticed something weird today, I was walking home from work, and then I was like noticing all these food shops and I said, no, I don't want to eat this, I can but I don't want to and that gradually changed to but shouldn't I eat dinner? And then I realised that I never really pay attention to if I am really hungry.. Even on this very low calorie diet, I am noticing now when I am really thirsty but hunger? Almost rarely because I jus eat because it is time. So that was my main reflection. It is still early days and I need to see how I adjust to this all mentally but felt weirdly enough caught out for my habit of just eating because I can and want to but not because I need it. So hoping if there is one thing I will take away from this is to eat when my body wants me to eat not because I can.

Changes to diet: Stopped being vegan for a day due bad night sleep and ate some eggs and bit of chicken. It did made me feel v good in the afternoon

Exercise: Long walk, did lots of phone walks with my family, and before I knew it, I was home and walked almost 13,000 steps so feeling good about that!

Oh and to add, I did made, despite being tired the roasted cauliflower soup and it is freaking delicious so will have that for lunch tomorrow, yeah!!

Not sleeping is such a pain. It makes dieting and exercise really challenging, not to mention functioning at work! Hope you get a better sleep. Really liked your post about passing food stores and saying to self "I can eat that stuff" but "I choose not to". This kind of mindful attention is what gets us to where we want to go. Have a great day, Littlelamb!

Breakfast: Porridge with almond milk and a mandarin: 250
Lunch: Roasted cauliflower soup + 1 slice of brown bread with hummus: 278
Dinner: Roasted cauliflower soup: 150
Snacks: Two oatcakes with 3 tsp almond butter: 248
Exercise: Weightlifting 25 minutes = 300

Overall mood: I didn't feel hungry at all so feeling and it helps that work is very busy so my mind isn't wandering off too food or what I am doing all the time. I am also noticing that my jeans are a tiny bit looser so that is keeping me motivated.

Change of food: I will make some changes to next week's schedule to include more greens overall. I listened to this fascinating podcast called 'Hurdle', where they talk to these two woman who set up a food-delivery service, and before you go oh not those kind of people, at least I did, they had some really interesting info about what eating more greens and really eating more greens is the best thing you could do for your body so after listening to that, I am going to include a **** load of spinach in my spaghetti tomorrow and will focus next week more on how I can include more greens in my diet in a fun way! I think my food has a lot of veggies but I will never eat veggies for, breakfast or as a snack, and want to think more closely of how I can do that

On a final note, I need to remind myself again today that this is a journey and the reason why I am doing the Fast800 is because I want to see results that keep me motivated but it won't change my body or health in the long term so I sincerely hope that after a few weeks, I will learn so many lessons about food, about exercise, about SLEEP!!, that I will change them into habits.

@Follena, thanks for reading along!! I slept much better last night and I think it is because I added more protein and fats to my diet so that was something to be mindful of. I know it is still early days but I am so so aware of my mind and all the thoughts I associate to food. I sincerely hope I can get to these place at the end of the year and say, the Fast800, is a bit of madness but it helped kickstart a healthy lifestyle.

Hi Littlelamb: glad adding protein helped you sleep better.

How are you doing these days?

Breakfast: Fasted, one black coffee
Lunch: Black bean stew + fake chicken pieces: 450
Dinner: Vegan MAC & Cheese: 400
Snacks: Tortilla chips: 200
Exercise: Long walk= 300

So I had three days off because my best friends from Holland came over and before I knew it, the Fast800 was long thought away. Felt really bad but happy to crack on again. I ate around 1200/1300 so not bad overall but a stark reminder that I am truly a social eater and need to eat more for myself then for others.

Will be in Paris from Thursday onwards, another real challenge, but have prepped my lunches and dinners up until Thursday and will aim to eat as lightly as possible.

The good news was that I lost 2 kilos before I went off the bandwagon, and this morning, I still had lost 1 kilo so that gives me hope!

Friends from Holland, jet setting off to Paris. You lead a charmed life.

Yes, you can definitely crack on again. Yay for losing 1 kilo!

Happy travels, Littlelamb